I wouldn't read to much into one program. I'm sure quite a few others (upper 1/4) weigh the USMLE scores much greater that Temple does. The statistics clearly back up my statement that scores matter on the national level much more than any "secret sauce" at Temple. Of course, Temple may not be the only program to devalue the USLME especially when they have a hard time finding top applicants.
Blademda, your point is well taken - every program has a somewhat different approach as to how they identify desirable applicants, although I think the overall message of your post is grossly oversimplified and does a disservice to those medical students reading this thread. As for our applicant pool, your comment piqued my interest because we simply had never analyzed it by USMLE scores so I did not know the answer. As a result, I dragged out the excel spreadsheet this morning and performed some number crunching.
Of the 880 applications Temple screened this year, the range of USMLE scores was from a low of 184 to a high of 263. The mean was 226 with a standard deviation of 16. If you limited the analysis to only the 100 applicants with the top USMLE scores, the range was 245 to 263 with a mean of 251 and a standard deviation of 5.6.
Interestingly (and completely unknown to me prior to this morning), of those 100 candidates with the top USMLE scores we offered interviews to only 25.
There is an important foundational concept at work here which I think is very poorly understood by medical students and recent graduates. Until your last day of medical school your entire value system (as least with regard to your career) tends to revolve around scores assigned on tests and standardized examinations. The MCATs, GPAs, USMLEs, etc define, to a significant degree, the opportunities that will be available to you.
The first day of your career as a licensed physician a paradigm shift occurs. Your value to a group or institution is almost entirely based on your ability to complete the technical, cognitive, and organizational work in front of you. You must be able to effectively problem-solve in real time (“real” problems in a real-world context, not just hypothetical academic medical questions), you must be able to constructively teamwork with the other individuals around you, and you must be able to address the most fundamental desire of patients and their families - the need to “feel better”. Communication, negotiation, emotional intelligence, the ability to multitask, and an intrinsic understanding of how to promote the highest possible performance in others are what create the high value physicians that both institutions and private groups will do anything to attract and retain.
Of the 150 or so specialists that I interact with regularly, there is not a single one that I know their medical school, residency location, or board scores. It simply is not relevant. The only things I care about are: are they pleasant and positive to interact with, can they do their job, and are they a positive influence on the system and, as a result, my ability to do my job?
Which brings me back to the USMLE scores. If you review the specific skills listed above required for career success in medicine / anesthesiology, there is little or no reason to think that a multiple choice examination covering basic science material after two years of medical school has any predictive value whatsoever. I believe that many larger programs rely so heavily on USMLE scores simply because it is easy to do so, and too much work to use more sophisticated selection systems. We devalue the USMLE not because we don’t have access to high scoring candidates, it simply is not relevant in our drive to identify the future stars in our specialty.
To illustrate, imagine a choice of two candidates. The first moved directly from high school to undergraduate to medical school achieving top academic grades the entire time but gaining no other experience - USMLE step 1 score 270. The second spent 4 years in the marine core, worked for an insurance company for 2 years after that while pursuing an MBA, then attended medical school - USMLE step 1 score 200. In reality we would spend significant time digging deeper into both candidates, but based solely on the facts listed above it has been my experience over the past two decades that the second candidate would be significantly more likely to have an impact on the medical system in which they go on to work and to be identified as a leader.
The end result of our “secret sauce” is that our residents are routinely selected for top fellowships and are actively pursued by private practices that have previously employed our graduates. In contrast, there are “top name” (from a medical student perspective) residencies that our local private practice groups will not hire from simply because their past experience has been that their trainees can’t do the job.
I offer all of this information simply for perspective. As medical students ponder their future after graduation it is challenging but essential that they begin to shift their focus regarding what is important. Regardless of which training program they select, once they achieve technical competence their future success as anesthesiologists will depend almost entirely on skills and personal characteristics that are not tested by the USMLE, or even the ABA Board Exams. After all, Boards are a pass / fail system. No one is going to ask you what you scored.